This invention relates to a data or symbol imprinting mechanism to be used in a camera. The mechanism allows a camera user to imprint the date or time or other information on film. The mechanism is simple, compact and inexpensive.
Symbol imprinting mechanisms have long been used in cameras to record information on photographs. The camera user can use symbol imprinting mechanisms to record, on the film, information such as the date or time a photograph was taken. Mechanisms used before differ in construction but they commonly suffer from similar drawbacks and disadvantages.
The newest symbol imprinting mechanisms have been electronic. They offer flexibility in what symbol is imprinted on the film as their chief advantage. The electronic mechanism, however, suffers from being complex. This complexity requires the camera housing to be specialized and can cause the camera to be sensitive to dropping or rough handling. This complexity and requirement for a specialized housing greatly adds to the expense of these mechanisms; for many camera users the expense of the electronic mechanism is prohibitive.
Mechanical mechanisms are also used. Like the electronic mechanisms, the mechanisms that have been designed suffer from certain drawbacks and disadvantages. One of the chief drawbacks is the requirement for the camera housing to be specialized. Holes, attachments for the components, and space have all been required in the past with these mechanisms. This leads to larger, more complex and heavier cameras. Size, and an often corresponding increase in weight, is a great inconvenience to camera users. Requiring the design of a completely new camera housing, along with their complex design, often makes these old mechanical mechanisms expensive. They are also often sensitive to jarring and rough handling because of their complexity.
Mechanical mechanisms that have been used in the past also often suffer from producing a poor imprint on the film. The imprinted symbol is often inaccurately exposed on the film giving a sloppy and sometimes blurred result. This is due to a lack of precision in the mechanical mechanism itself. Some mechanical mechanisms also waste film by imprinting a symbol onto a useful portion of the film instead of the very top or bottom. Other mechanical mechanisms are inflexible as to the variety of symbols that can be imprinted and do not offer the user the opportunity to change the available symbols or sets of symbols.
Another disadvantage of mechanical mechanisms that have been used to imprint symbols on film is a lack of simplicity and ease of use for the camera user. Often it is complicated and hard to verify exactly what symbol will be imprinted on the film in these mechanisms.
For both electronic and mechanical mechanisms that have been used a common drawback or disadvantage has been the use of a complicated optical system as part of the mechanism for imprinting symbols on film. The complexity adds to the camera's size, weight, expense and sensitivity to jarring or rough handling.
An alternative to relying on an optical system is to use light from the camera lens. This often decreases the quality of the final photograph, defeating the purpose behind taking the picture.
A recent development in the manufacturing, marketing and use of cameras has created new problems with the existing mechanisms for imprinting symbols on film. The recent development is the disposable camera which is used once and then discarded. These disposable cameras must be made relatively inexpensively. To market a disposable camera with a mechanism for imprinting symbols, an inexpensive mechanism must be available.
Therefore, from the discussion above on the limitations found in the prior art, it would be desirable to have a simple, lightweight, compact and inexpensive mechanism for imprinting symbols on film that does not have the drawbacks and limitations of the mechanisms used in the past.